You Promised
by Kitsune Krazy
Summary: Keiko has been waiting her whole life for Yuusuke to fulfill his promise of returning after three years, but it seems demon time is different than human time.


**I wanted to do a tragic oneshot thingy so, let me know what ya'll thinked!!**

It wasn't easy. Spending night after night wondering, waiting, wishing. It wasn't hard. Spending days with her new boyfriend and letting the promise of her soul mate fate into the many wounds of a growing heart. It wasn't fun. Spending lonesome evenings weeping over a death never announced but a death all the same, even if it was only a relationship that died. It wasn't boring. Spending day after day cooking up wild stories about why he had never come back to her. It wasn't really anything because he'd taken her everything.

Urameshi Yuusuke had been her first friend. First love. First kiss. First time. First everything. It was no wonder she felt like a shell without him. But even a shell can endure everyday life.

She lost touch with old friends, _his_ friends and had made new ones. She's even tried to replace him. But not one of the thousand boyfriends could fill the void. Not even her husband. While he'd come the closest to filling the void, he hadn't even filled one breath, one tear or one sob that she gave for him.

She was adored. Her friends loved her. Her husband loved her. Her kids loved her. Her grandkids loved her. But he didn't love her. He'd abandoned her.

Urameshi Yuusuke had been Yukimura Keiko's everything and now, all alone on her dying bed in some cold hospital, she was left to ponder just how true that was. She's loved him. He was her soul mate! He had promised her!! So… why? Why had he abandoned her? He hadn't died, Botan would've told her, she was sure of it but then again, she'd lost touch with Botan over forty years ago.

Wrinkled and old, crystal trails running down her face, Keiko called out the one name that she'd wasted her life wondering about with a childhood fondness, "Yuusuke… you jerk…"

The whisper ran cold in the tiny room. The window's curtains ruffled and she closed her eyes. What she would give to see him one last time…

"Yikes Keiko! You really let yerself go!" It couldn't be. The voice she'd replayed in her mind over and over again until she felt a hollow pain in her chest so sharp she'd though it would burst. The voice she'd dreamt every night for the past sixty years would greet her.

Keiko tried to sit up, to see his face, if only to know she wasn't hallucinating. But she couldn't. She was too old, too feeble. She heard soft steps come around her bed and warm hands cupped her face, "Yuusuke…" Warm tears flooded down her face and her heart nearly seized up. Beautiful as the day he left stood Urameshi Yuusuke, brown orbs filled with the utmost love for _her_. For Keiko. Sixty years later and not a day aged, it was like seeing an angel.

"Hey crybaby." Yuusuke smiled, "I'm so sorry, I… I didn't know… how long I'd…"

Keiko raised a hand to stop him. She didn't need to hear that. He was finally back. She was able to touch him, to hear him. Eyes filling with tears once more, she shook her head and told him, "You're here. That's all that matters."

Yuusuke grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze, kissed it and cried. After all these years, it was she who comforted him. Perhaps humans, with shorter lives than demons, gained wisdom sooner than them. She was not sad. She had no more regrets, not since seeing his face and she told him so. She told him of all the years she'd dreamt of him and Yuusuke listened the whole time, lip quivering, muttering needless apologies.

Keiko ran her fingers through his soft hair no longer gelled in his childish rebellion though he still appeared to only be sixteen.

"I love you so much Keiko." Yuusuke sobbed like a bitter child as she told him her life. As she told him how everything became worth while the second he entered the room and Yuusuke continued to cry and recite useless phrases telling her that it wasn't a dream and that he was finally back to wed her. The idea made her heart hurt and she shook her head.

"I'm sorry Yuusuke…" She cried, "You waited for me, but I couldn't wait for you."

And, as the truth behind the words hit, Keiko gave up her timid hold on life and allowed herself to be taken. The last thing she saw before entering the gates of spirit world, was the mournful howls of her love as he gave her one last kiss.


End file.
